Nope, it isn’t Batman or Superman or even Hal Jordan’s Green Lantern. But D.C. Comics has rebooted a venerable character and introduced him officially as gay. Meet Alan Scott, a Green Lantern superhero that will inhabit the universe of Earth 2 in a newly planned comic book series.

If the name of Alan Scott rings a bell, it’s because the character appeared in 1940 as Green Lantern, D.C. Comics said. He was married in that iteration, but the writer of the series, James Robinson, pointed out to USA Today that Scott also had a gay son. The new character will be a younger Green Lantern who also apparently resembles a certain social-networking mogul.

“He’s kind of a cross between Mark Zuckerberg and David Geffen,” explained Robinson to Entertainment Weekly. “He’s willing to give his life for the world. He’s everything you want in a hero. And he happens to be gay. So really, apart from his sexuality, there isn’t that much of a difference.” After teasing the news, D.C. Comics also downplayed the character’s sexuality in the release: “It is also important to note that while Alan is a gay man, his sexuality is merely only one part of his multi-layered character.”

DC COMICS

As with Peter Parker and Marvel’s recently introduced multiracial Spiderman character, Miles Morales, the gay Green Lantern will apparently inhabit an alternative universe from Hal Jordan (i.e. Ryan Reynolds, for you philistines who’ve only seen the film). Rolling Stone notes that the introduction of Scott is what revived the idea of “parallel worlds” as a storytelling technique by D.C. Comics. (Now if the Green Lantern character was gay in the next Hollywood reboot/sequel, that could be even bigger, bolder news).

The new Green Lantern also arrives just weeks after Marvel unveiled a gay wedding issue that saw X-Men member Northstar and his boyfriend wed in Central Park. At the time, NewsFeed noted that the editor-in-chief of D.C. Comics, Dan DiDio, had hinted that they were about to announce a new gay character.